This night seems like a thousand years ago. Let's see what I can recall.

The String and Return took the stage just after nine o'clock. The band has history. A lot of history. The shortest version is that the act was born in the late '90s when Kansas City was flush with musicians creating indie rock from punk and emo and noise rock and math rock and slowcore. The musicians took bits of each back to their practice space and built something beautiful and smart. Twenty-five years later, the band is still resolute in that vision and just as eager to share it with audiences.

The group's seven-song set started with a new one scheduled for a soft-announced upcoming album. It and the other new tunes were interspersed with ones from the act's 2023 album Placidyls. Most of its compositions were long, providing space for guitarist Andrew Ashby's vocals to develop and unfold. His guitar circled and toyed with Matt "Auggie" Wolber's. Wolber responded with cosmic solos that pinged through space and occasionally cried like pedal steel, adding a new color to the band's palette. Mike Myers played drums. And sang. And played keyboards. His percussion had the most flair, leading the players through added and truncated beats that gave the compositions a nervous energy. Bassist Dan Weber held it all together, from the ghostly whispers to the jarring eruptions. Maybe that's why he needed to face Myers rather than the audience throughout the show. Ashby spoke casually with the audience of friends, and at one point noted the novelty of not playing loudly. I guess it's all relative as The String and Return was loud enough to rattle ribcages in the small room. I suspect that will never change.

RxGhost doesn't have a long history, but its members do. Some created bands from those very same late '90s building blocks as the opener, but this project is another step or two removed from those days. Britpop, shoegaze, and alt rock all figure heavily into its sound. There is, of course, a throughline, but it's not always obvious.

The project is led by vocalist/guitarist Josh Thomas. He's tall, thin, and on this night, wore some sort of off-brand Muppet pajama pants. His wild graying hair is the only thing distinguishing him from his Generation Z kids. The rest of the quartet lined up as Jeremiah James (guitar), Chris Smead (bass), and Justin Brooks (drums). None of them were as outwardly eccentric, but we've all got our secrets. New single "Anytime but Now" started the set and laid out the blueprint. Most compositions were built on Thomas' rhythm guitar and his distinctive scratchy whine. Smead added melodic leads throughout the night, his head bouncing the time signature. Brooks played tight rhythms often built on little more than snare and hi-hat. This was in stark contrast to the expansive lead guitar of James that added lyrical leads steeped in post-punk. I surely missed some details, but I recall the audience becoming entranced by the moody gaze of "Over and Over the Same Things," and then later being reenergized by the bombastic indie rock of "People Are Animals". A cover of Nirvana's "Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge on Seattle" filled the room with noise and nostalgia. It's purely conjecture, but I'd wager that Thomas chose the cut as it aligns with his own views of the entertainment industry and its victims.

It wasn't long after eleven o'clock that the music ended. Despite playing sixteen songs, RxGhost's tunes are short, as Thomas prefers to get to the point and move on quickly. That's the opposite of the lulling tactic favored by The String and Return. Still, the audience found the throughline, embracing both approaches and the musicians behind them.